By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
WITH guide dog Philippa by her side, Glenise Swallow hasn’t let her poor sight get in the way of her will to paint.
The Cranbourne inspiration is blind in her right eye and has eight per cent vision in her left eye.
But when the minister from the High Street Uniting Church in Frankston suggested taking something up instead of giving something up for lent, Glenise and friend Valmai decided to get arty.
“We’ve been going for three years now, I have three artists that I help, two of which are vision impaired,” class facilitator Valmai Scully said.
Both students from Cranbourne, Glenise and blind friend Bev East, never thought their art would take out an award.
“Their Anzac poppy’s won first prize at the Royal Melbourne Show in the vision-impaired section,” a proud Valmai said.
But the win didn’t come easy. It was through out of the box thinking, Valmai said.
“We find other means of doing things, we use stencils and shapes; Glenise finished a painting of a vase of flowers using cookie cutters,” she said.
The 64-year-old artist said she had never been artistically inclined, saying “I couldn’t paint before I lost my sight.”
“But just because we can’t see doesn’t mean we can’t do- people get a shock when I tell them I paint, but one advantage of being blind is I can’t see the mess I make!” Glenise said, laughing.
“If I never lost my sight I would never have dabbled in art, I’m very proud of myself.”
After losing her sight 10 years ago to optic neuritis, Glenise said it was the birds that helped her through the tough transition.
“People say all the other senses just take over when you’re blind, but they don’t, you have to be trained to use them,” Glenise said.
“When I first lost my sight in hospital, I was having a big sook, and then I noticed I could hear the lorikeets out the window, and I thought, I wonder what else I can hear.”
In the past 10 years, Glensie has had numerous hobbies, including tandem cycling and rowing and is now an award-winning artist.
“A couple of people have told me I’m an inspiration, but I’m not trying to be that, I’m just trying to get on with life,” she said.
